Melody of the Jukebox
by Scully22
Summary: when Benson wakes to find Stabler in bed with her, the two struggle to remember what happened the night before.
1. Default Chapter

Olivia woke up slowly and tired. She felt dead tired but didn't know why. She closed her eyes again and turned on her other side. She just opened her eyes a little then closed them… then opened them a little. She got wide eyed. She saw Stabler lying next to her in her bed. She turned on her back and tried to think. She frowned- she had no idea what was going on. She lifted the covers around her to look and see, she was naked. She was wide eyed and let out a sharp breath. She covered her self as best as she could and ran to her bathroom.

Stabler slowly started to wake himself. He opened his eyes and sat up rubbing them. He looked around and noticed he wasn't at his apartment. He frowned as he looked around. Benson came back out from the bedroom. He looked at her frowning. She couldn't even look at him.

"What happened last night?" he asked as she stood at the end of the bed, dressed.

"I don't know." She said looking down.

"I hoped you would" she said.

"I don't remember a thing" he admitted.

"Why don't you get changed, and out of my bed. And we'll talk" she said starting to leave her bedroom.

"Uh, Olivia?"

"Yeah?" she turned around.

"Do you know where my clothes are?" he asked. She took in a quiet, deep breath.

"There, um, scattered on the floor…" she left. His eye brows raised and he leaned over to see both of their clothes on the floor.

After a couple minutes he came out into her small kitchen, and she had coffee made.

"Help yourself" she said going and sitting at her small kitchen table. He got a little coffee and sat down across from her.

"I don't like that I don't know what happened" she stated.

"I don't either. It's funny though, I don't remember how I got here at all" he told her.

"Neither do I and I live here"

"All I remember is going back to my desk after I left, because I forgot something. And I listened to my phone messages and I remember one of them upsetting me. That's it. What about you?" he asked.

"The last thing I remember is getting a call from you" she said.

"What did I say?" he asked.

"…I don't know…" she sighed as she set her mug down.

"We need to find out what happened" she told him.

"I know. How though?" he questioned.

"I don't know. I just need to know if what this looks like was a mistake…" she took in a deep breath.

"…or not" she finished as she stood and put her unfinished drink in the sink.

"Let's talk to Cragen." He suggested. She nodded and they headed out a few minutes later.


	2. ch 2

They got to the office a little late, and Cragen was talking to Munch and Fin. Benson and Stabler walked up behind him and interrupted.

"Captain" she said.

"Yeah?" Cragen turned to them while in the middle of a sentence with Munch and Fin.

"Can we talk to you?" she asked not looking at him, and Stabler looking the other way.

"Yeah. What's up?" he said turning toward them, leaving Munch and Fin.

"It's personal" Stabler told him and Cragen nodded. They followed him into his office.

"So…" He sat down as the two of them continued to stand.

"Something happened last night…" Benson started and Cragen frowned as she talked.

"… this morning I woke up naked, to find Stabler lying next to me…"

"Naked?" Cragen asked.

"Naked" Stabler stated.

"So, why are you telling me this?" Cragen asked.

"We don't remember a thing" Stabler told him.

"What do you mean?" Cragen wasn't sure.

"I mean, we don't remember what happened. I don't remember how I got in her bed. I don't remember anything but getting a disturbing phone call last night."

"And all I remember is Stabler calling me. That's it" Benson finished.

"You two want the day off?" Cragen asked.

"We want to know how to find out what happened." Benson told him.

"I think there's only one way of doing that" Cragen told them.

"Re-living last night."

"Like, investigate ourselves?" Stabler asked and Cragen nodded.

"You two figure out what happened, and talk to me tomorrow" Cragen stood to show them the door. Benson nodded.

"Thank you. And, um, could you not tell Fin and Munch, or anyone what were doing. We don't want others to find out what we did when we don't even know what we did" she asked.

"Of course" he said as they left. Fin and Munch watched as the two quietly talked near Stabler's desk.

"I think the way to find out what happened first is to hear that phone message you heard last night" Benson told him and Stabler nodded.

He sat at his desk, as Benson stood next to him, and he listened to his messages,

until he heard Kathy's voice.

"Hey Elliot, its Kathy. I just wanted to let you know that I am going for full custody of the kids. They'd be better off with me, and you know that. My lawyer says I will more then likely get them. See you in court." He hung up the phone stunned. Benson frowned at him.

"Every thing ok?" she asked as he looked up at her still stunned.

"It was Kathy. She's going for full custody of the kids." He said as Benson took in a breath.

"Do you think she'll win?"

"I know she will" Stabler looked away and stood up.

"We don't have to do this today- we can wait. You need to think about things." Benson told him worried about him.

"No. I want to do this now." He said.

"Okay. Well, when you get depressed do you go anywhere special? A bar? A restaurant?" she asked and he nodded.

"Come on" he said as they headed out of the precinct.


	3. ch 3

Stabler drove Benson to the bar that he regularly would go to when depressed. They were heading in when he got a call and he took it as she went inside. She walked off into another part of the bar to look around. See if it was familiar, Stabler came in a minute later. He went over to the bartender that he knew well.

"Hey Stabler- kind of early to be back" he said.

"I was here last night?" Stabler asked as he stood leaning against the bar.

"Yeah man, don't you remember?" he asked.

"No" Stabler said.

"What did I do?"

"Well you came in around twelve. You looked awful. Your face was red, and I asked if you were ok but you just asked for something to drink. You sat over there at that table, had two beers then went to the pay phone. About 15 minutes later this really hot babe came in and you two talked. You shared another beer and then you and her went off together."

"Was I drunk?" Stabler asked hopping he would be.

"No man, you actually drank less then you have before. When you left with that babe you didn't look one bit bad. At first I thought maybe you were someone else- but it was you alright" the bartender assured him.

"If you saw the woman I was with would you recognize her?" Stabler asked.

"Yeah, I mean she just walked in a few minutes ago" he told him. Stabler raised his eyebrow then called for Olivia.

"Hey Liv, can you come here?" he asked. She came over to him and the bartender.

"Is this the woman you saw me with last night?" Stabler asked.

"Oh yeah. I couldn't forget you" he said starring at her. She lifted her eye brow and turned to Stabler. They moved away from the bar and talked quietly.

"What did he say? Was I here?" she asked.

"Yeah… he said I was really really wasted. That I called you and you had to practically carry me out." Stabler lied.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah" he said looking away.

"I got to use the bathroom, I'll be right back" he told her as he walked off. Benson looked around and waited when the bartender called out to her.

"Hey are you Olivia-Olivia?" he asked as she turned.

"What?" she asked.

"Are you the Olivia, the one that Stabler always talks about?" he asked as she walked closer to him.

"What?" she asked quieter.

"Yeah he talks about this Olivia woman all the time. He likes her a lot, we get tired of him talking about her- but he never stops" the bartender said.

"Your not that Olivia? His partner?" the bartender asked again.

"…No." she said quietly as Stabler came out from the bathroom.

"Let's go" he said and she turned away from the bartender a little shocked. They got out to the car and Stabler looked at her.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"…yeah I'm fine" she said trying to take her face expression away.

"I have an idea of where we could have gone" he said.

"You don't think we went back to my apartment?" she asked a little hesitantly.

"Not yet" he told her pretty for sure.

He drove for awhile, and Benson had dozed off. She still had felt so exhausted and with the ride in the car, she couldn't help but sleep. Stabler felt odd. Like this felt familiar. It was weird. But starting to make sense. He pulled up to a valet parking, fancy restaurant. Benson woke up finally and he opened the door for her.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Where I think I brought you yesterday" he told her as they walked into the restaurant. The manager was standing at the podium just inside and smiled as they came in.

"Welcome back you two" he smiled. Benson turned to Stabler with a smile.

"Thank you" Stabler said and Benson frowned.

"Same table as last night" Stabler told him.

"Of course" the manager smiled and led them to a small table in the back room. It was quiet, and dim light lit the room.

"Same as last night?" the man asked.

"Of course" Stabler smiled as the manager went off.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Well, Cragen said to 're-live' yesterday- and it seems where ever we went people recognized us and had good things to say." He smiled as he put a napkin in his lap. She smiled at him as the manager came back with the wine.

"Dinner is on the house tonight" the manager said and Benson looked at Stabler surprised.

"Thank you. Thank you very much" Stabler told him and the manager smiled while he poured wine into both their glasses.

"Um, excuse me." Benson called out before he left.

"Yes madam?" he asked.

"Uh, yesterday. What did we do?" she asked as the manager frowned.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"Yes. Why did you remember us?" She asked. The manager looked at her with a frown.

"It's a hard night to forget" he told her before he walked off. Benson was going to call out to him again when she stopped and looked at Stabler with a frown.

"What happened last night?" she asked.

"I don't know. But, so far so good" he smiled still stunned with the managers answer.


	4. ch 4

The two spent the evening sipping wine and talking. Laughing. Eating. Having a wonderful time. Which either of them had had in awhile. Stabler smiled as Benson took another sip of her wine.

"Oh god, we've been here for two hours" he said smiling. She smiled.

"No" she said.

"Yeah" he told her. She put her head back and smiled then looked at him.

"Tell me something, do you believe in fate?" he asked.

"Fate?" she asked.

"Well, what if nothing happened last night. What if us forgetting what happened, and coming together to try and figure it out, was fate. Maybe we didn't do anything at all. Maybe we had to be brought together like this" he said leaning forward a little.

"Together like what?" she asked as she set her glass down.

"I mean. You just got out of a three year relationship, and I just got out of a long-time marriage. My kids are being taken from me, and the one person who knows me best is sitting in front of me. Maybe we should try 'us'" he told her.

"Us?" she asked as he sat back again and took a sip of his drink.

"Elliot… I don't think either of us are ready for a relationship. Especially together" she told him.

"I love you. As a friend, as your partner, but… I don't know if I love you in that way. I don't think I am ready to love you in that way" she told him and he nodded.

"I'm sure of three things in my life, my wife- whose now left me, my job- which disappoints me and you" he said.

"You're the one thing I have Olivia. The one thing I can't lose. I love you." He told her. She looked away and took in a deep breath.

"Come on lets get you home" she told him and the two got up. Stabler ended up paying for the meal anyway, and she drove him back the long distance. She got in front of her apartment and parked the car.

"Why don't you stay with me tonight" she insisted. He nodded. He followed her up to her apartment and was tired. She was his friend, his partner. She grabbed his hand gently and pulled him into her bedroom. She got in bed and he slid in the bed next to her. They were friends. She faced him, on her side, as he lay on his back. She put her hand on top of his and soon they both fell asleep.

_Dear Diary, _

_It's odd how fate works. Its odd how two people who know and care and would do anything for each other don't play on their emotions. How people ignore the obvious. How they put aside the love. I thought Romeo & Juliet was a corny story, a childish one. But when you get down to it, the only thing childish about love are the people who fall in love. Why don't I admit I love him?... _

**Finished. **


End file.
